Her Secret To Bear
by evieeden
Summary: Tiffany Call didn't know her lover was married, and now the identity of her son's father is a secret that she must keep alone. Advent story written for 21st December.


**Happy 21****st**** December. So today's advent offering is actually one of my favourites that I've written for this month, so I hope you all like it. Big thanks go once more to the lovely idealskeptic for betaing for me yet again, and as always, I must confirm that unfortunately I don't own Twilight.**

**Her Secret To Bear**

Tiffany was fifteen when she fell in love for the first time.

She had been a late developer and hadn't really been interested in boys before that year. Even then, all the boys in her class and the two above her all seemed incredibly immature. They were far too interested in sticking their sweaty hands under the girls' shirts and didn't know anything about romance.

Josh was so different from them.

He was older for one thing, about twice her age, but he was smart and hardworking so the rest didn't bother Tiffany. He worked construction around the reservations in the Pacific Northwest area, and could often be seen fixing houses in her neighbourhood, the sweat dripping down his back giving his shirtless body a sheen that emphasized the definition in his muscles. Tiffany's best friend, Charlotte, often joked that she wouldn't mind licking those muscles. Although her candour had made Tiffany blush at the time, she couldn't help her own fantasies about him.

He didn't come from their reservation either, adding to his exoticism. Instead, he had shown up in Makah about six months earlier, after his parents down on the Quileute reservation had passed away unexpectedly, leaving him alone in the world without anyone to turn to.

Her parents got along with Josh too. Her father worked alongside him sometimes, and he was often invited back to dinner with them.

And he had noticed her. He noticed her when no-one else did.

He flirted and talked with her, and when she turned sixteen that summer, he gave her a chaste kiss along with the gift he'd picked out for her. Although she wore the bracelet he'd given her religiously, it was the memory of that kiss that she'd cherished.

Josh had vanished from the Makah reservation one day and did not come back for a month, and it wasn't until he'd returned that she found out that he'd been visiting his hometown of La Push.

He was different when he came back as well, not as gentle. Tiffany still felt like a princess in his company, but there was an edge to their encounters now that she didn't understand.

They dated, in secret of course, because her parents' didn't approve of the age gap between them, and the closer they had gotten, the deeper Tiffany had fell.

He told her that he loved her after two months and overjoyed, she returned the sentiment. Once she was old enough, he told her, they would be married and they would be happy.

That night she gave herself to him, secure in the knowledge that they were in love and engaged and would be happy together.

He vanished the next day.

Unlike last time, no-one knew where he had gone and there was no promise of return to anyone. Half-finished construction jobs were left scattered around the reservation and there were whispers of money problems and debts owed.

Tiffany was devastated.

She hoped that what people were saying about Josh wasn't true, but these were people that she had known all her life. They had no reason to lie about him.

And then she missed her period.

She hadn't worried the first month it had happened, she wasn't on a regular cycle anyway, but after the second month also came and went, she began to worry.

She convinced Charlotte to drive her up to Port Angeles and there, in the dingy bathroom of a cheap diner, she learnt that she was going to be a mother. She was going to bear Josh's child.

Her first feelings had been ones of excitement and joy. Sure, she was a little young still, but she and Josh were engaged and she just knew that he would come back after the money troubles had all gone away.

And then the crushing terror had taken over, and it only grew with time.

Josh didn't come back. There were murmurings around the reservation that he would be in for a beating if he stepped back into Neah Bay ever again. But still, Tiffany had hoped. She had hidden her progressing pregnancy from her family under a series of oversized sweaters, but she had known that sooner or later the truth was going to come out; she was four months' pregnant and her stomach was finally developing a pronounced bump.

So she stood in front of her parents, scared and alone, as she confessed in a stutter that she was pregnant and that she wanted to keep her baby.

Her parents had been disappointed and furious, both with her and with Josh. Her father ranted about shooting him the next time he came around for violating his teenage daughter, while her mother sat there silently, fuming. When Tiffany tried to step closer to her mother, wanting nothing more than a comforting hug, she was pushed away sharply, the word 'slut' ringing in her ears.

Her mother then launched into a tirade about ungrateful daughters who didn't appreciate the sacrifices their families made for them. Tiffany had been told that she was lustful, that she was wicked and that she must have played some role in seducing the visiting stranger. A regretful look on his face, her father suggested that it might be better if she left.

So at sixteen, Tiffany Call found herself pregnant and homeless, a handful of crumpled bills clutched in her hand from where her father had hastily shoved them after she had packed a suitcase of her most precious possessions and walked out the door of her childhood home.

The big, wide world was an incredibly daunting place and she didn't have a clue where to go.

And then it had hit her.

La Push. The Quileute reservation and Josh's home.

He hadn't returned to Neah Bay due to his debts, but she was sure that if only he knew about her pregnancy, he wouldn't hesitate at taking her in. They could get married like they had planned and raise their baby together.

Huddled in a shoddy motel along the freeway between Neah Bay and Forks, she put her plan into action and gained permission to take up residence in an empty house on the Quileute reservation.

Her new home was little more than a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom, squashed together, but it was hers and Tiffany was filled with hope. So what if the bath leaked and mould was growing up the windows? So what if the porch steps were broken and she had to jump up to reach the front door? So what if there was no heating, forcing her to wear every item of clothing she had left home with just to stay warm?

This was her home, and she was proud of it.

Of course, she knew that once she had located where Josh lived that she would probably be moving in with him, so the state of the house wouldn't bother her for very long.

But fate, so cruel to her in the past year, struck yet another devastating blow.

She found Josh again.

Or rather, she found the Uley house.

Josh wasn't there. But his wife and three year old son were.

Any last remains of hope for her relationship, her lost love, were gone, completely destroyed.

It had all been lies; everything he had told her had just come out of his mouth with no respect for the truth.

Through town gossip, she had learnt that Joshua Uley had left town the year before, around the time he had shown up on the Makah reservation, after his wife, Allison, had thrown him out for drinking and gambling away their money, as well as for the liaisons with young women he was most definitely not married to. He had only returned once since then, a few months back when he had tried to rekindle his relationship with Allison, only for her to throw him out again shortly after.

He hadn't been seen since, and most people were in agreement that Allison and her young son, Sam, were well rid of him.

Tiffany was shattered by what she discovered.

Her relationship – if you could call it that – with Josh had cost her everything – her home, her parents, her friends, school...

The list was endless.

And now she had been left with his child to take care of as well.

Oh, she couldn't hate her baby, she knew it wasn't its fault, but she also knew that people would talk, that they would wonder and gossip.

At the convenience store one day, she overheard someone talking about Josh's exploits - "no doubt fathering bastards all over the place" – and she swore that no one would ever speak about her child that way. No one would ever call her baby one of Josh's bastards. She didn't think she could bear it if they did, and she didn't think that she'd ever be able to look Allison Uley in the eyes if the other woman ever found out what she had done.

People were already beginning to wonder and talk about the young girl who had shown up in La Push heavily pregnant with no father in sight, although single mothers were not uncommon in the area. Luckily for Tiffany, the kinder members of the tribe took pity on her and Connie Littlesea took her on as an assistant in the small tourist shop that she ran down by the beach. Tiffany was grateful for the work. The money her father had given her had finally run out and she had been worried about how she was going to survive without it.

With her job and her home, she was mostly settled; she had only her unborn baby left to worry about.

The day after Tiffany's seventeenth birthday, her son was born. He was absolutely perfect. He had ten little fingers and ten tiny toes and for only the second time in her young life, Tiffany fell in love again, only this time she knew the love she felt wouldn't wane.

She named him Embry, after her favourite character on the daytime soaps that played on the TV at work. She knew that other people would think she was silly, but secretly she dreamed that her son would be just like the character she adored – handsome, kind, faithful, and absolutely nothing like Joshua Uley.

The community gathered to support the new mother and she found herself moved to tears by their support and generosity in taking her in when she needed them.

She was surprised one day though when there was a knock on the door and she opened it to find Allison on the other side, young Sam holding his mother's hand.

"Good morning, Tiffany. May we come in?"

She didn't know quite what to say and so just stepped aside, waving the older woman into her home.

"What can I do for you?" her voice wavered uncomfortably and she cleared her throat to banish her nerves. The only thought running through her mind at that moment was that Allison somehow knew about Josh, that she had found out, and Tiffany would be ousted from the place she had come to see as her home.

Allison held up a shopping bag and led the way to the kitchen. "I brought you some meals that you can just heat up. I know that when you've got a newborn the last thing you feel like doing is cooking, so I thought maybe these would come in handy for you." The older woman smiled self-deprecatingly. "Plus I haven't had a chance to meet little Embry yet, and I just can't resist babies."

Tiffany laughed, half in humour and half in sheer relief. Allison didn't know. Her secret was safe. "You and half the reservation, I think."

She fetched the sleeping baby and the two women cooed and sighed over the baby before he started squirming in his sleep, a sign that he was waking up and would shortly be demanding a feeding.

Sam had peered at the baby with a good deal of interest during their visit, and Tiffany had idly wondered whether children were capable of spotting the truth where adults couldn't. However, for all his studying of the new baby, Sam had merely decided in the end that Embry had a strangely-shaped head and smelt funny, making both women chuckle at his observations.

When Embry began to cry though, Allison had stood up and shuffled her son towards the door, pausing before she left. Reaching out, she had gripped Tiffany's arm.

"Tiffany, I know we're not the closest of neighbours, both of us are far too busy, but I want you to know that I understand what it's like to be a single parent. If you ever need any help, and I do mean ever, please don't hesitate to come to me. I know how hard this parenting gig is, so don't ever think that you're alone."

Tears welled in Tiffany's eyes. She had had an affair with this woman's husband and here Allison was being so kind to her.

"Thank you." It was all she could manage to say.

With one last squeeze of her arm, Allison left and Tiffany dissolved into tears.

That evening she promised herself again that she would never reveal to anyone the identity of Embry's father. It would hurt too many people, especially Allison and Sam, and she couldn't do that to either of them. They didn't deserve that. She would take her secret to the grave. Her parents were unlikely to spill the truth to anyone – when she had called to tell them about Embry's birth, her mother had refused to acknowledge that she or her son even existed – so she was safe there too.

When people asked, she lied and said that Embry's father had been her summer fling and that he had moved on since then. She told them that she hadn't known him very well at the time and wasn't able to find him afterwards to tell him about his impending fatherhood. She realised that this explanation didn't do wonders for her reputation, but it kept people from asking too many questions. After a while all the questions stopped anyway.

Tiffany and Embry became part of the community to the point where most people forgot that she had even come from the Makah reservation in the first place. She continued to work at the souvenir shop and Embry grew up into a quiet, young boy. She was worried at first that her son's natural shyness would stop him from making friends, but he was soon taken under the wing of the Chief's son, Jacob Black, and his friend, Quil Ateara.

They were happy together, a little family of two, and if Embry ever wondered who his father was, he kept it to himself.

He had asked her once, when he was five, where his daddy was. Tiffany had flinched at the question, before giving him the same answer that she had devised for everyone else when she had first come to La Push. He had nodded, untroubled by her response. Lots of other children on the reservation didn't have fathers either, including one of his best friends, so he wasn't too concerned about not having one. He had just wanted to know where his had gone.

Tiffany gave a sigh of relief when he had accepted her explanation without asking any questions. Her secret was still safe for now, although she knew the ugly truth might raise its head again when he got older.

Whatever she had anticipated for the future for Embry, it certainly wasn't for him to suddenly go through a massive growth spurt at seventeen. Within the space of a week, he had shot up in height and his body had become noticeably broader, muscles developing where they hadn't existed in such definition before. Unfortunately, he also became ill around the same time and so she sent him to bed and left for work with a reminder that there was soup in the fridge for him if he felt like eating later. When she had got home after her shift, he had disappeared.

Tiffany was frantic. She called all his friends, trying to track him down and find out what had happened. In the back of her mind, a tiny voice screamed that maybe he was so sick that he had been forced to go to hospital and he was laying there waiting for her now.

Her poor baby boy.

Before her imagination could drive her completely insane though, Billy Black had called and said that that Embry had been found hanging out in the woods with a group of friends in his class, and that he was on his way back.

She was so pleased that he hadn't been found lying bleeding in the middle of the road somewhere, that Tiffany chose not to question too much why her son walked in the door thirty minutes later half naked and covered in mud, with his beautiful shoulder-length hair cut brutally short. She knew he wouldn't tell her the truth even if she asked about where he had been when he was supposed to be sick, so she felt it was best not to force him to lie to her.

Despite the obvious proof that he wasn't sick anymore, Tiffany had decided to play it safe and let Embry stay at home the next day too, under a threat of grounding if he left the house again without telling her where he was going.

She went to work and performed her duties on automatic pilot that day, her mouth saying the right greetings and thank yous and her hands carefully scanning and bagging the carvings and masks that the pale-skinned tourists bought, but her mind was miles away, back with her son and his strange behaviour from the night before.

The bell above the door rang and she was jerked out of her thoughts by the sound. Looking up, Tiffany's heart sank as she came face to face with Sam Uley. He too had newly-shorn hair and in that instance, staring at him, she could see clearly, oh so clearly, the resemblance between this man and her son. The likeness between the two was so plain for anyone to notice and she swallowed heavily.

If anyone on the reservation had ever wondered or speculated before, it was now plain to see that Sam and Embry – her poor Embry – were brothers.

Hell, Sam as he was right now was the spitting image of Joshua. The true identity of Embry's father could be in no doubt any longer.

"Ms Call." He nodded his head at her respectfully. He spoke so formally, looked so grave, that it was difficult for her to remember that he was just twenty-one years old. "May I speak with you in private, please? It's about Embry."

Tiffany eyes were wide, her heart beating out of control.

The look on his face was a mixture of pity and anger. She remembered the curiosity and solemnity with which he had studied Embry as a baby and she wondered if he had ever suspected.

But now there was no more hiding anymore, not with that look on his face.

He knew.

Sam knew.

And Tiffany's secret crumbled to pieces around her.


End file.
